1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to automatically controlled matrix switching and manipulation in telephone systems or the like and, more particularly, to automatic transfer of facility information associated with a caller's premises from the matrix system to a remote location requiring such information.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In response to a request received at a prior art telephone company business office from a prospective subscriber for full and permanent telephone service, information relating to the prospective subscriber is conventionally obtained orally by a service representative. Since the prospective subscriber does not know specific facility information (i.e. facility assignment numbers for facilities serving the prospective subscriber's premises), the service representative must send an order, prepared from the request for permanent service, to other locations to obtain the required facility information in order to establish permanent service. The prior art overcame the need for obtaining facility information from other locations by leaving the cable pair, central office and line terminating card, and telephone number connected to a disconnected line of a previous subscriber, so that a new subscriber can retain the same known facility information from the previous subscriber. The association between a calling line and facility information is determined via automatic number identification (ANI) whereby the calling line telephone number (i.e., in this case the telephone number of the previous subscriber) is automatically inserted into the dial pulse stream of a call during routing of the call over telephone lines.
In order to automate servicing requests for telephone service, our copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/408,831 and U.S. Pat, No. 5,456,608 disclose a cross-connect matrix and a method and apparatus for remotely placing jumper pins within the matrix to establish cross-connections between cable pairs and central office telephone lines in order to provide temporary and permanent telephone service to prospective subscribers. Also disclosed is a "soft dial tone" feature whereby a prospective subscriber at a premises lacking full telephone service but connected to a cross-connect matrix (e.g., from installation for a previous subscriber occupant of the premises) is provided with limited telephone service sufficient only to place telephone calls to an emergency center (i.e., 911 emergency center), the telephone company business office to request permanent telephone service, or other locations designated by the telephone company. Specifically, a soft or limited access dial tone line is connected to the matrix instead of to the telephone switching mainframe in order for the matrix system to selectively establish the proper connection and provide such limited service. However, neither of the aforementioned disclosures provide a way to automatically associate and verify the exact address, location and facility information of a prospective subscriber.
Further, the prior art determination of the association between facility information and the calling line telephone number has several disadvantages. The determination is ineffective if the previous subscriber transfers his/her telephone number to a new location. Further, there is no way to automatically associate and verify the exact address location and facility information of a prospective subscriber. Moreover, the service representative is required to verify the facility information by means of time consuming research of facilities and thereafter arrange for technicians from a central office to associate the calling line telephone number with the facility used to make the request for permanent service, thereby increasing time, labor and cost of the process.